Abstract / Description of output
In 2017, the UK government limited the number of children for a whom a low-income family could claim a means tested benefit (the 'child element' of 'Universal Credit') to two. Since then, over 400,000 families - including 1.5 million children - have been affected by the 'two-child limit'. Emerging research indicates that the limit has done little to influence fertility rates, nothing to influence workforce participation, and a great deal to increase financial hardship and poverty. Via a synthesis of existing research, and a critical analysis of formal policy dialogue, I explore the specifically reproductive politics of the two-child limit. I cast the limit as 'successful' reproductive governance, a 'technology of discipline' with complementary effects and rationales, which works by further marginalising intersectionally marginalised women. In concluding, I argue that the state justifies this abject outcome via what Elena Ruíz (2020) calls 'cultural gaslighting'.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | jxae011 |
Pages (from-to) | 455-479 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | Social Politics |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 16 Aug 2024 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2024 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- two-child limit
- welfare reform
- reproductive governance
- gaslighting